Sustaining

Large Landscape
Conservation Partnerships
Strategies for Success

Shaping the Future of the West June 2012

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Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships
Sonoran Institute Mission and Vision
The Sonoran Institute’s mission is to inspire and enable community
decisions and public policies that respect the land and people of
western North America. Facing rapid change, communities in the
West value their natural and cultural resources, which support
resilient environmental and economic systems.
Founded in 1990, the Sonoran Institute helps communities
conserve and restore those resources and manage growth and
change through collaboration, civil dialogue, sound information,
practical solutions and big-picture thinking.
Our passion is to help shape the future of the West with:
Healthy landscapes that support native plants and wildlife, diverse habitat,
open spaces, clean energy and water, and fresh air.
Livable communities where people embrace conservation to protect quality
of life today and in the future.
Vibrant economies that support prosperous communities, diverse opportunities for
residents, productive working landscapes and stewardship of the natural world.
The Sonoran Institute is a nonprofit organization with offices in Tucson and Phoenix,
Arizona; Bozeman, Montana; Glenwood Springs, Colorado; Sheridan, Wyoming; and
Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. For more information, visit www.sonoraninstitute.org.
The Sonoran Institute, Shaping the Future of the West
BLM Mission and Vision
The Bureau of Land Management’s vision is to
enhance the quality of life for all citizens through
the balanced stewardship of America’s public lands
and resources. Its mission is to sustain the health,
diversity, and productivity of the nation’s public lands for
the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.
The BLM manages more land than any other federal
agency—more than 245 million acres. This land, known as
the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in
12 western states, including Alaska. The Bureau, with a budget
of about $1 billion, also administers 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate
throughout the United States.
For more information about the BLM, its history, its mission or its activities,
visit www.blm.gov.
Acknowledgements
The Sonoran Institute expresses gratitude to Bureau of Land Management staff, and to Larry Fisher with
the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution for their essential support of this project. Many
thanks to Helene Aarons, Kit Muller, and Trevor Needham for their vision and partnership on this project.
We thank Matt McKinney and Shawn Johnson with the University of Montana’s Center for Natural Resources
and Environmental Policy; Martin Goebel with Sustainable Northwest; Gary Tabor with the Center for Large
Landscape Conservation; Peter Friederici and James Buthman with Northern Arizona University; and Nina
Chambers with the Sonoran Institute for their valuable insights and input into this guide. We also recognize
and applaud the many large landscape conservation partnerships for contributing their stories and
experiences, and for the commitment and dedication they show toward this important work.

Strategies for Success 1

 Foreword
In 2000, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Tucson Field Office and the
Sonoran Institute convened a workshop that examined trends in community-
based land management planning. The insight gained from this workshop
resulted in the publication of the Desktop Reference Guide to Collaborative,
Community-Based Planning. Ten years later, in June 2010, the BLM and
Sonoran Institute again facilitated a meeting of collaboration veterans, this
time at the BLM’s National Training Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

Much had changed in that ten years. The practice of working through
partnerships and collaboration is now a more integrated and sought after
way to manage the public lands, particularly at the intersection of public and
private lands. Increasingly, collaborative efforts are expanding from a single
community or an isolated watershed to large landscapes involving many
partners and many issues. From the perspective of public land managers,
there is a growing recognition that strong and enduring networks and
partnerships are critical for providing public input into decisions and for the
effective delivery of government services.

At the 2010 workshop, we brought together leaders from some of those

partnerships to tell their stories. This booklet shares the hard-won experience
of the workshop participants, and other stories from the field, and highlights
key principles for developing and sustaining landscape-scale collaborative
efforts. Whether you are just starting out or have a more developed
partnership, we hope that these principles and stories are helpful to you as a
practitioner of large landscape conservation partnerships.

Carl Rountree Luther Propst

Assistant Director, National Landscape Conservation Chief Executive Officer
System and Community Partnerships Sonoran Institute
Bureau of Land Management

2 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships

Contents
page 4 Executive Summary
page 6 Setting the Foundation:
Seven Principles of Successful Collaboration
page 8 Succeeding on a Larger Scale
page 10 Lead with Vision
page 12 Enable Meaningful Engagement
page 16 Use Science as Your Guide
page 18 Adapt and Evolve Management Rules
page 24 Leverage New Communications Opportunities
page 26 Conclusion

page 28 Resources and References

Strategies for Success 3

 Executive Summary
The public lands of the western United States are changing, and so is the management of
those lands. Since the 1980s and 1990s, numerous collaborative approaches to planning
and management have taken hold on lands managed by the BLM and other agencies, whether
at the federal, state, or local level. Such approaches offer a range of compelling benefits:
they provide an opportunity to bridge traditional divides among those interested in various
land uses; they enable the leveraging of knowledge, skills, and funding so that agencies
and organizations can complement one another’s strengths; they provide a broad means
of assuring public access to and understanding of management decisions; and they have a
proven track record of ensuring that public lands are managed in an inclusive way.

Over the years, the field of conservation collaboration and partnerships has evolved. Public
and private lands are subject to numerous impacts that respect no boundaries and that
increasingly require landscape-scale thinking. These issues include the spread of invasive

This booklet explores

each of these themes,
as well as key principles
behind successful collaboration.

4 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships

species, habitat connectivity for wide-ranging wildlife, and the effects of climate change. Meanwhile,
new technologies are providing us with groundbreaking tools for understanding the land and for
interacting with one another. Finally, the economic recession and ongoing budget pressures at all
levels of government have heightened the need for conservation and user groups to join forces, seek
ways to operate more efficiently and effectively, and explore innovative methods for gaining funding. In
the face of these trends, it is a good time to examine how collaborative approaches to landscape-scale
management are working: what are the challenges, and the successes?

This guide is the result of surveys, interviews, and workshops that attempted to distill the principles
and practices of successful landscape conservation partnerships. We recognize that no two
partnerships are exactly alike; they are as varied and complex as the landscapes and sociopolitical
settings from which they emerge. However, our discussions with large landscape-scale conservation
partners revealed a number of common themes that have helped these groups grow and that will
continue to enable them to evolve and succeed.

Lead with vision

A common vision crosses boundaries and can become the guiding and sustaining
force for a collaborative effort.

ENABLE MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT

Creating an atmosphere of inclusivity, shared responsibility, and bottom-up rather than top-down
participation invites deeper, broader, and more sustainable involvement.

USE science AS your guide

Science can be the “great equalizer” in a diverse group’s decision-making process. Also, new
science-based tools allow a more holistic view of landscapes and can furnish more sophisticated
project planning, forecasting, and evaluation of outcomes.

Adapt and evolve MANAGEMENT RULES

Governance structures vary widely among collaborative efforts and need to
be flexible as goals and needs of the effort change over time.

Leverage new communications opportunities

Collaborative efforts and their participating partners and stakeholders must take advantage of
new social media technologies as a way to build participation and new networks, promote their
work, secure funding, and share information with other collaborative groups.

Strategies for Success 5

 Setting the Foundation
T
he two-day workshop that the BLM Tucson field office and
the Sonoran Institute hosted in 2000 was part of a long-
term cooperative effort between the two organizations to
build capacity within the agency and in communities adjoining
public lands to effectively participate in community-based land
management planning.

BLM field personnel from across the West came together to

share what they had learned from their extensive experience in
collaborative approaches to land management. Their stories and
recommendations resulted in the Desktop Reference Guide to
Collaborative, Community-Based Planning, a publication that set
forth the basic elements of a successful conservation partnership.
A decade later, conservation partnerships have trended from
boutique scale to large landscape, but the principles forming the
foundation of successful collaboration remain the same and are
worth reviewing.

6 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships

The Seven Principles of Successful Collaboration
1 Build Lasting Relationships
The most important, most fundamental factor in producing successful collaborative
conservation is the strength of the relationships among neighbors, community leaders,
agency representatives, and other participants. Inclusiveness is the cornerstone of
developing trust and building credibility with partners.

2 Agree Upon Legal Sideboards Early On

It is important to inform participants early on what is within the sphere of the group’s
decision-making authority. Also, agency officials need to be clear about the federal
mandates they are required to uphold, such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),
as well as laws that may require them to retain decision-making authority.

3 Encourage Diverse Participation and Communication

Groups should make a special effort to get people with different perspectives to the
table early in the process, both to gain the insight of varied points of view as well
as to build broad-based support.

4 Work at an Appropriate Scale

Create responses to operate at the level of the problem. Determining the appropriate
scale can be a major challenge but is critical to the success of collaborative,
cross-boundary collaboration.

5 Empower the Group

Collaboration means truly listening and then acting upon what the group is encouraging.
Land managers will find that the more they empower the group, the more the group will
empower them—and the more opportunities they will all have to succeed.

6 Share the Resources and Rewards

Having access to information and resources is one of the key benefits of collaboration.
It is important that all participants are involved and share equally in the group’s
responsibilities and its successes.

7 Build Internal Support

It is essential that agency and partner personnel build high-level support early on within
their respective agencies or organizations in order to ensure the funding, staffing levels,
and technical expertise required to enable the group to follow through on its plans and
recommendations.

Strategies for Success 7

 The purpose of this booklet
is to highlight and share
some guiding principles
and experiences to
help strengthen
large landscape

collaborative
partnerships
and foster
their effectiveness.

8 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships

Succeeding
on a Larger Scale
W
hether it is a partnership between two people or two
hundred, a successful collaboration at its core requires
mutual trust, a common purpose, and a commitment
to work together. These were themes we heard repeated again and again
at both sets of workshops, despite the ten years and many changes separating
the gatherings. That said, when the number of people involved in an effort grows,
when budgets expand and projects become more complex, and when the size
of the project area increases from perhaps a single watershed to an entire
ecosystem, the strategies for making a collaboration work most effectively can
change as well.

Large landscape conservation brings its own unique set of opportunities and
challenges. Often, large landscape projects can extend across multiple county,
state, and even international boundaries. They can encompass both public and
private lands, and commonly fall under the jurisdiction of a menagerie of state
and federal departments and agencies—including, at the federal level, the
BLM, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service, the Department of Defense, and so on. Groups of people working
together on these multi-issue, multi-jurisdictional, and multi-scale projects are
becoming more prevalent and more sophisticated. The purpose of this booklet is
to highlight and share some guiding principles and experiences to help strengthen
large landscape collaborative partnerships and foster their effectiveness.

Strategies for Success 9

Lead with vision
TIP
Follow the “80/20 Rule” of focusing
on areas of agreement.
Choosing projects on which partners
and/or the group widely agree can help
ensure progress and enthusiasm, and
avoid the trap of getting bogged down by
conflict (see Blackfoot Challenge profile).
“ “
When you can see a huge landslide
that’s been stabilized or see the riparian
zone recovering. . .on-the-ground
success is truly I would say the single
most important factor in keeping people
motivated.”
Hezekiah Allen,
Co-chair of the Mattole Restoration
Council, California
10 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships
Lead with Vision
Given its size and numerous complexities,
collaboration on a large landscape scale
can appear daunting. But there is one
powerful element that transcends the
multiple boundaries, jurisdictions, and
agendas that may otherwise overwhelm
a collaborative effort: a common vision.
A compelling issue or set of issues
catalyzes people and groups to come
together; the vision of how the issue(s)
will be resolved is the glue that binds and
sustains this collaboration.
It can take considerable time and
patience, but the process of developing a
clear vision together is an essential part
A key component to a successful
partnership is knowing what needs to
be accomplished. Having a good, solid
mission statement that becomes a mantra
ensures that everyone stays on task and
knows what interrelates and what is not
pertinent.”
Renee Dana,
Wyoming Landscape Conservation
Initiative Coordinator, BLM
of building trusting relationships among
partners. Meanwhile, it is also important
to soon move beyond the meeting room in
order to keep participants inspired. Many
of the workshop participants pointed to
the value of achieving tangible results on
the ground early in the process, even as
they recognize that short-term goals are
only stepping stones on the way toward
achieving the larger vision. Working
together on small, “low-hanging fruit”
projects on which all partners and group
members can quickly agree is vital both
in keeping members (and their partner
organizations) motivated and in increasing
a group’s social cohesion, trust, and
sense of shared accomplishment. Start
small, in other words, but always keep the
larger vision in mind.
“ It is not difficult to communicate
across diverse backgrounds and missions
because all can agree on the mission
and vision of the Desert Managers
Group—to conserve and enhance the
California deserts for future generations.
Everyone wants to see a sustainable
California desert, whether your mission is
to promote conservation, as in the park
service or wildlife agencies, or if while
promoting conservation you are also
promoting use of the desert, such as the
Department of Defense.”
Russell Scofield,
Desert Managers Group Coordinator, BLM
 PROFILE
Blackfoot Challenge: ^

Building Trust and Momentum through Consensus Washington *

Helena *
B

Salem North
Montana
*

Facing numerous issues of caring for the land in the late 1970s, landowners along the
Blackfoot River in Montana began gathering community support for conserving and sharing
Oregon the
Idaho
South
resource through public and private partnerships. The Blackfoot Challenge was established in
Boise City
*

Wyoming

1993 and has since gained wide recognition for its innovative approaches that bring together •
Casper

landowners and governmental agency staff for community enhancement and natural resource
Neb
conservation. Salt Lake City
*
Cheyenne
*

Carson

Through a series of public-private partnerships, the Blackfoot Challenge annually achieves a Nevada
long list of
*

Utah
Sacramento Denver
* *

Grand Junction
Colorado
on-the-ground accomplishments: conserving an average of 7,000 acres of land every year since 1993;
•

Montrose

creating fire safety for 500 acres of forest; treating 5,000 acres of noxious weeds; reducing conflicts Cedar City
•

St. George
Durango

between people and wildlife; educating 500 youth; reaching 1,500 adults with lessons learned; and
•

California
•

conserving water and energy through increased efficiencies. •

*
Santa Fe

Albuquerque
•

Private citizens provided the impetus for the creation of the Blackfoot Challenge, and they remain criticalArizona
Los Angeles
•

• Palm Springs New Mexico

in enabling the organization to bring people together with land management agencies to generate positive, •
San Diego

Yuma
*
Phoenix

proactive solutions to land issues that transcend public-private boundaries. For example, the group has
•

Tucson
•

recently worked with The Nature Conservancy to place 89,000 acres of former private timberland into a Nogales
•
•
El Paso

network of public and private management. Baja California

Sonora
The most important elements of collaborative leadership, according to executive director, Gary Burnett, Chihuahua

are being inclusive, working toward consensus, thinking long-term, acting flexibly, and remaining open to
Baja California Sur
Coahu

the different ideas that will be brought to the table. To successfully navigate this diversity and progress
toward its vision, the group operates on what they call the “80/20 Rule.”

“This rule is often articulated by one of our fifth-generation ranchers, David Mannix, who sits on our board:
Try to work on the 80 percent where people come together on agreement. It’s not that the other 20
percent is not important, but if we focus on the 20 percent where we disagree, we probably won’t get
much work done. Weed control was one of the early consensuses and continues to be one of the things
we work on. It’s onerous and takes a long time, but we continue to work on it and we’re making some
pretty good progress.”

Learn more about the Blackfoot Challenge: www.blackfootchallenge.org

Strategies for Success 11

ENABLE MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT
“
One of the best things that we can
do is not be out front, but behind, and
help people who are already on the coast
be more successful in the driver’s seat.”
Rick Hanks,
Monument Manager, California Coastal
National Monument, BLM
TIP
Create opportunities for informal
networking to help build
relationships among partners and
group members.
Practitioners we spoke with stressed
the importance of creating ways for
partners and group members to bond
through casual interaction outside of
the conference room. Sharing meals,
working together on projects in the
field, and simply having time to talk with
one another during meeting breaks all
serve to strengthen relationships among
partners and group members, which
ultimately results in a stronger and more
effective collaboration.
12 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships
Enable
Meaningful
Engagement
When it comes to managing large
landscapes, no single entity can or should
do it all. The sheer size and diversity
of large landscape-scale projects call
for broad and varied involvement, while
ongoing budget pressures in Washington
underscore the importance of building
stronger partner and private-sector
participation and funding streams. Indeed,
the practitioners we spoke with noted
that there is a heightened interest at the
federal level in supporting partnerships
and collaborative programs. They cite
the increasing number of interagency
partnerships linking varied agencies,
as well as a growing recognition by
agency officials of the value of working in
broader citizen-based partnerships. The
government, across all sectors, is relying
less on public employees in traditional
roles, and more on a complex, interlocked
network of partnerships, contracts,
volunteers, and alliances to accomplish
mission-critical work.
This perceptible shift from land
management agencies’ traditional roles
as doers on the land to enablers is
beneficial; it invites more and deeper
participation from partner organizations
and local citizens, which in turn makes a
collaborative effort more impactful and
sustainable.
How can agency employees and private
citizens more effectively enable the large
landscape collaborative process? One of
the most important contributions any land
management agency can make toward
a collaborative project is its networking
capability. At the simplest level, this might
be a matter of providing a meeting space,
hosting a website, or sending meeting
notices to interested stakeholders. It can
mean providing scientific assistance in the
form of GIS training or hosting, supplying
ecological survey information, or offering
other technical support. Likewise,
partners and non-agency member groups
can play important leadership roles and
participate in the setting of goals, public
outreach, social networking, on-the-ground
restoration work, and many other tasks.
At the same time, management agencies
working in a collaborative effort can
and should continue to take advantage
of their built-in, long-term institutional
commitment. Though particular
mandates, funding levels, and personnel
do change over time, agencies have the
legal authority and commitment to the
management of particular lands or entire
landscapes through the long haul. This
provides critical stability to collaborative
efforts in which particular stakeholders,
partner groups, and even project goals
may be in flux over time.
Suggestions for Enabling Large Landscape-Scale Collaboration:

Be open and inclusive

Inclusiveness in a collaborative process is not an intangible goal, but rather an outcome that needs to be realized
continually. An inclusive group is one in which mutual trust—often developed over a long period of time—fosters a safe
environment in which information, values, and decision-making authority can be readily shared.

Allow partnerships to form from the grassroots, empowering local citizens

“Successful partnerships are implemented and led from the grassroots. Local and active participation is critical,” says
the BLM’s Renee Dana. The group she works with, the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI), created local
project development teams to assist throughout the 18 million acres that the initiative covers in southwest Wyoming. Open
to anyone who wants to join, these teams help WLCI stay focused and true to its mission, bring a diversity of ideas and
expertise to the table, and provide critical support in the field. “We can’t be all things to all people, so we depend on those
partnerships and those folks on the ground to help us out,” Dana says.

Leave titles, agendas, and assumptions at the door

In a collaborative setting, every partner and stakeholder at the table must be willing to sacrifice at least some self-interest
and territorial control in pursuit of a larger good. Also, the collaborative effort may not be “business as usual.” Many
participants may be asked to take on new roles and responsibilities and to adjust to decision-making procedures that may
differ from those in their own agencies or organizational settings.

Provide numerous opportunities for participation

People bring a variety of skills to a partnership and want to feel that they are making a difference. To nurture their long-
term commitment, partnerships should take full advantage of participants’ energy and skills by offering a variety of ways
to help beyond attending meetings. These can include assisting with on-the-ground projects, gathering and communicating
data and information, and securing financial contributions. Partnerships need active participation in all of these areas to
remain healthy and effective.

Provide a forum for divergent groups to come together for the common good
Whether it is part of the formal governance structure or a natural outgrowth of the collaborative process, successful
collaborative efforts often form an umbrella structure that coordinates and supports the activities of the various partners,
groups and individuals. Such a forum not only facilitates awareness and cooperation but also makes the groups’ efforts
more efficient, by better leveraging each other’s resources and minimizing duplication of effort.

With only two full-time employees, the California Coastal National Monument presents a dramatic example of a forum’s
organizational efficiency. To effectively manage its more than 20,000 small islands, rocks, and exposed reefs along the
1,100 miles of California coast, the monument’s tiny staff developed and pulled together a broad array of partners from
the Oregon border to San Diego.The core partners include the three main agencies with management responsibilities: the
BLM, Department of Fish and Game, and California State Parks. More than two dozen collaborative partners work with the
BLM on a wide range of monument activities.

“We’re tasked with coordinating,” says Rick Hanks, monument manager. “Our effort is focused on creating a forum for all
of those different management agencies to work together so there is more awareness, more cooperation and no repetition
of services, and so that everyone is able to take advantage of the efforts that have been made previously in resource
protection and analysis of the resource.”

Strategies for Success 13

ENABLE MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT

“ The BLM was very, very skilled in calling

meetings but not imposing their processes
on those meetings, so people worked out the
most effective way to interact with each other.
I think that was very helpful and it showed
great patience on the part of BLM, which was
absolutely necessary to establish a level of
trust amongst all of the different interests.”

Jeff Williamson,
Board Member,
Cienega Watershed Partnership

14 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships

 PROFILE
^

The Crown Managers Partnership: Washington *

Helena *
B

Unifying Multiple Jurisdictions, Agencies, and

Salem North
Montana
*

Collaborative Community Efforts under One Umbrella

Oregon
Idaho
*
Boise City
South
Wyoming
Casper
•

The Crown of the Continent is a vast swath of mountains, “For us to understand what east of the divide is doing, say
Neb
grasslands, and wilderness valleys that stretches from along the Rocky Mountain front or along the front in Alberta, Salt Lake City
*
Cheyenne
*

the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in Montana to the and what our friends on the other side, in the Flathead Valley
*
Carson

are doing isUtah

Nevada
Sacramento Denver

Highwood River and Elk Valley in Alberta and British Columbia. or in Fernie, British Columbia, really important. Colorado
* *

Grand Junction
•

Encompassing 28,000 square miles of the northern Rocky Learning what issues communities are dealing with, be it Cedar City
•

Montrose

Mountains, it is governed by multiple jurisdictions: national, wildfire, management of grizzly bears, or management of
•

St. George
• Durango

California
•

state or provincial, tribal, and local. It was in order to unify tourism, has been very beneficial.” •

the often fragmented land management prevailing here that

•

Santa Fe
*

governmental representatives initiated the Crown Managers Bringing Native American tribal members into the process
•
Los Angeles
•
Albuquerque

Partnership in February 2001 by joining together, with the early and often was also critical in an area that includes
Arizona New Mexico • Palm Springs

Phoenix

sovereign tribal landscapes. Indeed, the CMP is a rare

*

help of the Miistakis Institute for the Rockies, to create a

San Diego
•

Yuma
•

forum about ecosystem management for the Crown region. partnership that encompasses governments of multiple Tucson
•

sovereignties.
El Paso
•
Nogales
•

The initial workshop was considered a great success, and
a steering committee formed to continue to develop further
advances in ecosystem management and collaboration across
political borders. The workshop became an annual event that
resulted in the formation of the Crown Managers Partnership
(CMP). A unique example of international cooperation on
a landscape scale, the partnership started with modest
goals of communication and information sharing, but has
developed over a short period of time into a successful
example of collaboration that has dealt with such complex,
cross-border issues as climate change, wildfire and watershed
management, the decline of whitebark pine ecosystems, the
impacts of tourism, and the control of invasive plant species.
“We are a critical piece of landscape for this whole
continent,” says Mary Sexton, director of the Montana
Department of Natural Resources and CMP member.
Baja California
CMP members also work with the Crown Roundtable, Sonora a
Chihuahua
voluntary forum of many different stakeholder groups that
Coahu
facilitates dialogue over regional ecosystem
Baja California Sur conservation.
It also provides an avenue to reach out to broader publics,
and to integrate the knowledge and experience of citizen
stakeholders within the management process. That allows
for important information-sharing across jurisdictional and
watershed boundaries, and allows members to take a broad
view of what links specific areas and projects.
“It takes dedication and patience,” Sexton says, “but I think
in the long run this is going to be the avenue of the present
and the future in order to get good, large landscape work
and projects done.”
Learn more about the Crown Managers Partnership:
http://www.crownmanagers.org

Strategies for Success 15

USE SCIENCE AS YOUR GUIDE

Use Science as Your Guide

Science is the basis for thoughtful land-use planning and is at the heart of many
collaborative efforts. In the last ten years, practitioners in collaborative ventures have
experienced a revolution in the application of science to landscape-level planning.
New tools for mapping, remote sensing, scenario planning, monitoring of species,
and modelling of such processes as wildfire, the movement of groundwater, and
climate change allow a much more holistic view of landscapes. In turn, this more
comprehensive understanding of the landscapes and their systems underscores that
those landscapes must be managed as a whole and in such a way as to anticipate the
needs of our changing future.

TIP
Use joint fact finding as a way to build
relationships and produce scientific
information on which partners and
stakeholders can agree.
Demographic and economic changes will continue to affect western landscapes as
people make decisions about where to work, live, and play. Climate change will alter
landscapes and ecological processes in ways both predicted and surprising. In the face
of this flux, it is vital to pay close attention to the scientific and scenario planning tools
that can provide the latest and best information.

The trust that is integral to landscape-
level collaboration grows out of shared
work and common understandings. It
forms, above all, when partners and
stakeholders make discoveries together.
For this reason, it is a good idea to build
some joint fact finding into a collaborative
project from the very beginning. Through
this process, participants work together
to arrive at a mutual understanding of
the issues relevant to their effort and to
reach agreement on the technical and
scientific information that will guide their
decisions.
In guiding a collaborative group’s efforts, science can serve as both a means and an
end. The process of monitoring and collecting data in the field, for example, provides
a group not only with critical information but also offers important opportunities for
engaging local citizens, team building, and strengthening community investment and
support. Also, in an atmosphere of divergent interests and agendas, science can
act as the “great equalizer,” cutting through conflict with hard facts. Finally, scientific
information can show a group the path forward by informing planning and decision-
making, but it is equally important as a means of evaluating success. As such, it forms
the foundation for adaptive management, ensuring that future decisions are based in
part on ongoing monitoring of past results.

“The purpose of joint fact finding is to

allow stakeholders and decision makers
to work side by side with experts to seek
agreement on what they know; what
they don’t know; and what they need to
know in order to make timely, informed
decisions,” says Matthew McKinney,
director of the Center of Natural
Resources and Environmental Policy at
the University of Montana.

16 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships

 ^

Washington
PROFILE
Bismarck
Helena *

Wyoming Landscape
*

Salem North Dakota

Montana
*

Conservation Initiative:
Oregon
Idaho
Boise City
South Dakota
*
Pierre

Using Science to Reconcile

*

Wyoming
Casper

Competing Land Uses and

•

Nebraska

Inform Conservation
Cheyenne
Salt Lake City * ^
*

Carson
*

Nevada Utah
Sacramento Denver
* *

The Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative began in 2007 as an effort toColorado •

Grand Junction

balance conservation and ecosystem restoration with development at the landscape •

Montrose
Kansas
Cedar City

scale. The initiative covers 19 million acres of the Green River Basin and adjacent
•

St. George
• Durango

California
•

land—an area that contains tremendous natural habitat, over 1,400 family farms and •

ranches, and large amounts of recoverable natural gas reserves. Oklahoma

•

Santa Fe
* ^

Albuquerque
•

The initiative works at various levels to integrate interested groups; its executive
Los Angeles
•

Arizona New Mexico

• Palm Springs

committee consists of eight members from participating agencies (BLM, U.S. San Diego
*
Phoenix

Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wyoming
•

Yuma
•

Game and Fish Department, Wyoming Department of Agriculture, the Wyoming

Tucson

Texas
•

El Paso
•

County Commissioners Association, and the Wyoming Association of Conservation

Nogales
•

Baja California
Districts). Six other committees provide scientific and technical support, coordinate ^

Sonora
information among federal agencies, and communicate with the public. Four
Chihuahua
geographically based local project development teams involve local parties in Coahuila
developing common conservation prioritiesBaja andCalifornia
providing
Sur input into specific projects.

“
Initiative participants believe that the best way to reconcile competing land uses is
to integrate science-based habitat assessments conducted across the landscape, as
Citizens, policymakers, and
well as local input, into the planning process. They have six goals:
scientists agree that land use,
1. habitat conservation natural resource, and environmental
2. supporting sustainable agriculture policy should be based on the best
3. improving knowledge of the southwest Wyoming ecosystem available science.”

4. synthesizing information and communication Matthew McKinney,

5. supporting partnerships Director of the Center for Natural
Resources and Environmental Policy,
6. providing mechanisms for data and information exchanges. University of Montana

“We have a strong science foundation,” says Renee Dana of the BLM. “We have
a science strategy plan and are working on science management integration. We
gather data, identify data gaps, and use data to inform conservation.” The U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) is on WLCI’s executive board and is a member of its
coordination team. With assistance from USGS and other partners, WLCI uses
LIDAR (light detection and ranging) mapping for vegetation and soils typing, and to
determine their interrelationships with wildlife.

WLCI shares the scientific information it gathers with other interested parties
through its own website and one it shares with the USGS. It also produces a science
catalogue to house and make available the scientific data it gathers.

Looking forward, Dana says science will help them measure the effectiveness of
the group’s efforts. “We are working on a comprehensive assessment with our local
partners to provide long-term guidance so that five years from now we can determine
if we are meeting our goals and our mission statement.”

Learn more about the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative: www.wlci.gov

Strategies for Success 17

ADAPT AND EVOLVE Management Rules
“ In terms of relationships,
collaboration, and governance, you
need to assume that it’s going to be a
continuum and assume that you need to
be adaptable. We started out with one
vision of what the partnership was going
to be and relatively quickly realized that
we had to adapt and continue to adapt as
things change.”
Karen Simms,
BLM and Cienega Watershed Partnership
18 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships
Adapt and Evolve
Management Rules
Governing structures of large landscape collaborative efforts can vary widely. Some
organizations are designed primarily to implement projects, such as the Mattole
Restoration Council or Restore New Mexico (see profile). Others serve more as
umbrella organizations coordinating multiple partners, as with the Blackfoot Challenge
and the California Coastal National Monument. Common to all effective collaborative
partnerships and groups, however, are the traits of openness and clarity. Rules of
engagement must be clear to all, and partners and members need to agree on how
power is exercised, exactly how decisions are made, how decision makers are held
accountable, and how partners and stakeholders have their say.
As it matures and the projects it works on develop and change over time, a
partnership’s governance structure is likely to change as well. Many conservation
efforts begin with an ad hoc group addressing a specific need that then becomes
a formalized organization as the number and scope of members, partnerships,
and initiatives expand. Similarly, when a group progresses from the planning to
implementation stage, its governance needs may change. With this in mind, it is
important to revisit your governance structure periodically and to remain flexible
enough to allow it to evolve as needed.
 Nebraska
Cheyenne
Salt Lake City * ^
*

Carson
*

Nevada Utah
Sacramento Denver
* *

Colorado
PROFILE
Grand Junction
•

Montrose
Kansas
Cedar City
•

Cienega Watershed
o

California

Oklahoma
Partnership: Evolving
•

Santa Fe
* ^

Albuquerque
•

Los Angeles

over 20+ Years

•

• Palm Arizona New Mexico

Phoenix
*
San Diego
•

•
Yuma

Just a short drive east on Interstate Tucson

Texas
•

10 from the sprawl and hubbub of •

El Paso

Tucson, the grasslands and perennialBaja California

creek waters of Las Cienegas National
^

Sonora
Chihuahua
Conservation Area (NCA) are a step back in time. Vistas of open land stretch to distant mountains; cattle ranchers ply
their trade; animals such as gray hawks,Baja
yellow-billed cuckoos, mountain lions, and Coahuila
California Sur
coatimundis roam riparian corridors
that connect the forested mountains. Grassland species such as pronghorn, black-tailed prairie dogs, and grasshopper
sparrows are finding new habitat in recently restored grasslands where mesquite has been removed.

It wasn’t easy keeping this valuable tract of land from development—or to decide what to do with it at all. After it came
into BLM management in 1988 through a land swap, a need for joint planning in this fast-growing region soon became
evident. The BLM initiated a collaborative process that, some years later, led to the formation of the Cienega Watershed
Partnership, whose mission is to facilitate cooperative actions that steward the natural and cultural resources of the
Cienega Watershed while enabling sustainable human use. Today the Cienega Watershed Partnership fosters integrated
management across the 42,000-acre NCA and a neighboring planning area of an additional 100,000 acres.

The congressional decree establishing the NCA mandated citizen involvement, and the partnership is focused on
implementing the resource management plan that the BLM wrote, with extensive stakeholder input and buy-in, for the NCA.

“Federal agencies were never going to have sufficient resources to implement the resource management plan,” says
partnership board member Jeff Williamson. “They weren’t going to be able to conduct the monitoring and restoration that
needed to be done to keep the landscape from decline. So we told them, ‘Let us go where you can’t.
Use us as an experiment.’”

The experiment has been a success. In a landscape of many potentially competing interests, from cattle grazing
to wildlife conservation to many types of outdoor recreation, the partnership offers a way to find common ground.
Led by a nine-member board, it serves as a social hub and as an umbrella group for a number of community-based
organizations in the region.

From the BLM’s perspective, it was critical for the partnership to transition from a cooperative forum to a nonprofit
501(c)3 organization so that it could raise funds to engage in particular projects that can’t be funded by the BLM or other
public agencies. “As we moved from planning to implementation, we realized that we had a hole of who was going to
continue to facilitate and provide administration for that forum and who was going to generate resources for the work that
participants in the forum wanted to undertake to support the BLM in developing the land use plan,” says Karen Simms of
the BLM. “We quickly realized that in order to get those resources, we needed a nonprofit organization.”

Recently the partnership was awarded a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for a three-year project aimed
at the inventory and restoration of the NCA’s aquatic species and habitats. Volunteers will do much of the work, which
should help the region’s native frog and amphibian species.

The partnership is also engaged with other regional organizations in assessing and planning for the likely impacts of
climate change in southeast Arizona. Williamson says that it is able to be more nimble than often understaffed and over-
committed land- or wildlife-management agencies can be.

“Our focus right now,” he says, “is on how to deal with rapid change in complex systems.”

Learn more about the Cienega Watershed Partnership: www.cienega.org

Strategies for Success 19

20 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships
 ADAPT AND EVOLVE Management Rules

Funding Needs Also Bring Change

Funding needs represent another key driver of governance structures
and their evolution. The search for funding is an ongoing challenge in the
best of times, not to mention during a stressed economy with shrinking
government budgets and increased competition for grants. Added to these
difficulties is the complexity inherent in large landscape-scale collaborative
partnerships. Several workshop participants commented, for example, on
the difficulty of coordinating budget requests across and within state and
federal agencies, and then combining funding from different sources to
apply to specific projects.
TIP
The governance structure of the Desert Managers Group (DMG) allows
federal backing for coordinated projects. However, it doesn’t have any Seek non-traditional forms of
fiduciary authority, so all of the work that gets done is conducted through funding and services.
the authority of the various agencies involved in the group. “That has
created huge problems for funding for us,” says Russell Scofield of the All public land managers today are
DMG. “You have a project that everyone in the room agrees to as a high challenged to have sufficient and
priority. Desert Tortoise monitoring is a classic example. This is something adequate resources to protect the
in the recovery plan, something that every manager within the range quality of our landscapes. Rather than
of the listed population of Desert Tortoise needs to participate in. They relying solely on state, federal, and
all support it, but yet how do we fund it? How do we do a coordinated local investment in land management,
budget request? And if we have several agencies that do have funding to partners and stakeholder groups can
contribute to it, how do we pool all that funding from different agencies— become actively involved in finding
worse yet, from different departments, like Interior and Defense—into one non-traditional ways of supporting public
place so we can accomplish one single project that benefits everyone? land protection and management.
That’s the challenge. And we see that at six-digit projects, all the way down Like Restore New Mexico and the
to $10,000 to $20,000 projects. We refer to it as ‘tin cup budgeting.’” Cienega Watershed Partnership, groups
Remaining nimble and innovative as an organization in order to address we spoke with have been able to
funding challenges is absolutely vital. Some groups, like the Cienega leverage partnerships to access funding
Watershed Partnership (see profile) and the Mattole Restoration Council from other sources, such as from
have adapted by forming non-profit organizations and partnering with foundation grants and trusts, individual
similar organizations in the region to make joint funding requests. contributions, and ecotourism.
Several participants noted a desire among funders for landscape- “We have to find ways of managing
level impact and greater coordination of funding requests. A regional these linked landscapes that have
approach to seeking funding acknowledges this preference and also shared values outside of what has
helps diversify funding sources. become the prescriptive norm,”
Hezekiah Allen of the Mattole Restoration Council says that when his says Jeff Williamson of the Cienega
group signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate with two Watershed Partnership. “Agencies
other non-profits in the area, it was actually at the request of funders. do not have the kinds of resources
“Funders were tired of seeing redundant grant applications,” he says. necessary to manage to a quality
“The interim MOU was signed two years ago, and since then all three outcome. We say: ‘We understand you
groups have seen benefits. We maintain very long-lasting relationships have limited resources. Perhaps we
with our funders, and the MOU has definitely helped provide a framework can attract resources from these other
for those relationships.” areas in ways that complement your
management plans.’”
As groups like Restore New Mexico have discovered, finding innovative
ways to raise and consolidate funding can significantly broaden the impact
of their work (see profile).

Strategies for Success 21

 *
Boise City
South Dako
Wyoming
Casper
•

ADAPT AND EVOLVE Management Rules Nebraska

Cheyenne
Salt Lake City *
*

Carson
*

Nevada Utah
Sacramento Denver
* *

Colorado
PROFILE
Grand Junction
•

Montrose
Kans
Cedar City

Restore New Mexico:

•

California

Bringing Together Diverse Funding Streams Ok

•

Santa Fe
*

for Conservation on a Grand Scale

Albuquerque
•

Los Angeles
•

• Palm Arizona New Mexico

Phoenix
*
San Diego
•

The BLM manages more than 13 million acres in New Mexico, Pooling diverse funding has been
•
Yuma

Tucson

Texas
•

but the Restore New Mexico program doesn’t consider even critical to the program’s success, •
El Paso

that vast area in isolation. It is a landscape-scale Healthy Lands
Initiative project that aims to conduct restoration work on large
tracts of land, often across jurisdictional boundaries. Since
2005, the program has conducted restoration treatments on
lands both public and private. It has restored arid grasslands
that had become overgrown with mesquite or creosote, removed
invasive saltcedar from riparian corridors, and rehabilitated
abandoned roads and oil well sites.
The program began at the initiative of Linda Rundell, BLM’s
New Mexico state director. In 2005 the Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS) dedicated $1.25 million in funding
from its Environmental Quality Incentives Program toward the
restoration of BLM grasslands in southeastern New Mexico.
The BLM matched the funding. Since then funding from the
NRCS has continued, and the BLM has committed more than
$20 million of its own funding in the last five years. The success
of this collaboration has also leveraged funding from other
sources, including ranchers, local communities and irrigation
districts, conservation organizations, sportsmen’s groups, the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and private interests. Local
Natural Resource Conservation District offices have been able
to serve as fiscal agents that accept federal funds from multiple
agencies, as well as private funds that are then used for a single
unified project.
as have its diverse partnerships.
Baja California
Restore New Mexico has enabled Sonora
the BLM to work together with a wide variety Chihuahua
of groups such as
tribal governments, the Boy Scouts, oil companies, ranchers,Coahuila
Baja California Sur
and the Peregrine Fund on projects of mutual benefit. As a
result, restoration projects have been implemented on almost
two million acres in a wide variety of habitats across much of
the state. The practice of focusing on the ecological needs
of a landscape, rather than on the property lines that cross
it, is promising. Restore New Mexico planners have already
identified more than four million additional acres they want to
work on next.
“Many of our staff has claimed that they have had more
impact on the land in the last five years under Restore New
Mexico than in the 25-30 years of their previous career work,”
Berger says. “That’s a testament to how much you can do
with a good partnership.”
Learn more about Restore New Mexico:
www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/restore_new_mexico.html

“In the past, one of our biggest problems occurred when the
budget was distributed and specialists received a few thousand
dollars to do their individual projects on the ground,” says the
BLM’s Doug Burger. “That ended up with one acre being treated
here, five acres there, and maybe a big treatment would
be 100 acres. Today we focus on 22 priority
watersheds within the state. All the NEPA
planning is done up front. At that point we
combine all the funding we can find into
focusing on these landscape areas.
That allows us to restore land health
100,000 acres at a time.”

22 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships

Strategies for Success 23
LEVERAGE NEW COMMUNICATIONS Opportunities
“
We have various unfolding and
new options to harness people’s
interest, people’s awareness, people’s
commitment, and people’s support over
time—and harnessing the social media
will be important for all of us. We have to
focus and build relationships with people
through the Web, just like we do at the
local level.”
Martin Goebel,
Sustainable Northwest
TIP
Let the students be your teachers.
Engaging younger members or
volunteers in the process of designing
and implementing your social media
strategy is a great way to both tap their
Web-savvy and energize this important
sector of your partnership or group.
24 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships
Leverage
New Communications
Opportunities
The Internet and new social media technologies are powerful tools that collaborative
groups can use to draw in partners, attract funding, and share scientific information. By
now it is fairly standard among collaborative partnerships and groups to have a robust
website, filled with news, photos, videos, in-depth project information, and ways to
donate and get involved. However, newer social media tools are still on the horizon for
most of the partnerships and groups we feature here.
Platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook did not exist a decade ago, when
the BLM had its initial workshop. But since exploding onto the scene over the last six
years, they have been revolutionizing the ways individuals and organizations interact.
They are hugely popular and influential, and simply cannot be ignored. Without losing
sight of the basics—the face-to-face outreach, meetings, and rallies that have proven
essential for gaining and sustaining involvement—it is important for collaborative
partnerships and groups to learn how to gain the benefits of these tools and begin
integrating them into their overall communications strategy.
But where to begin? Martin Kearns is co-founder and executive director of Green Media
Toolshed, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the environmental movement
communicate more effectively. He writes one of the leading blogs on network-
centric advocacy, titled “Network-Centric Advocacy: Advocacy Strategy for the Age
of Connectivity” and frequently conducts presentations and workshops on network-
building. His advice to groups entering the social media arena:
1. Listen before you speak.
Think about whom your partnership or group communicates with now and what kinds
of information you listen for. Specifically, who do you listen to and what information, if
you heard it today, would change your actions tomorrow? Once you have defined your
listening strategy, you can set up a Google Search Alert for related keywords. Then,
whenever someone talks in a blog or anywhere else on the Web about topics important
to your partnership or group, you will receive an email notification. You can read and
then comment on what they are saying, effectively starting a dialogue.
Remember that, through social media, your partnership or group is forming a different
kind of relationship with your audience. Rather than the broadcast you have traditionally
made through your newsletter or press releases, a social media relationship is a two-
way conversation, and you need to act accordingly.

“When you walk into a party of new people, you don’t just get up on a stage and start
talking,” Kearns says. “A better approach is to ease yourself into the crowd, walk
around and mingle. Listen to what people are saying, and if you have something to say
on that topic, then you speak up. It’s much the same with social media. Listen and chit
chat before asking people to volunteer or give money, or whatever else you want them
to do for your group.”

2. Be careful what you ask for.

Setting up a Facebook page and gaining fans is relatively easy. The larger challenge
is determining your “Ask.” Do you want your audience to write to their congressman,
help with a field project, donate, attend a meeting? It is critical to carefully think through
what you want from them, and what you will do with their actions. If you ask them to
submit a photo, for example, how do you promote that? What feedback will you provide?
Does it go into a photo contest, a collage that is put on the entrance wall or the visitor’s
center? In short, what do you do with people once they pay attention to you?

“Think of it as a radio channel, but it’s a conversation,” Kearns says. “Once someone
tunes in, they had better not get dead air, because they will go away. Whether it is
YouTube, Twitter, or your email list, you have to have something to talk about.”

3. Invest in the relationship.

Having a relevant and effective social media presence requires time and resources. Not
only do you need to spend time every day reading and responding to what people are
saying about your group and your issues, but you also have to invest the necessary
time in planning ahead to keep the conversation going. Your social media plan should
be just as structured and detailed as the rest of your communications strategy,
complete with an editorial calendar that sets forth topics months in advance.

Strategies for Success 25

 Conclusion
Over the past decade, many collaborative conservation partnerships and groups
across the West have been expanding their efforts to large landscapes—and are
accomplishing conservation goals on a scale that would not otherwise be possible.
Managing the complexities of having multiple partners, working across multiple
jurisdictions and government agencies, and juggling multiple issues is not easy.
However, the groups we spoke with have all learned and benefitted from the
experience. They have adapted, evolved, and ultimately flourished.

Looking ahead, the challenges facing our landscapes will not go away or get any easier.
For new and veteran conservation partnerships alike, it will be important to keep in
mind the lessons that these successful and sustainable partnerships have shared:

LEAD WITH VISION - Develop a clear vision to unify and guide your group

ENABLE MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT - Create an atmosphere of

inclusivity and shared responsibility

USE SCIENCE AS YOUR GUIDE - Employ the best available science

to inform decisions

ADAPT AND EVOLVE MANAGEMENT RULES - Remain flexible in order

to adapt to changing circumstances

LEVERAGE NEW COMMUNICATIONS OPPORTUNITIES - Explore new

communication technologies to expand networks and raise funds

Above all, enjoy the work, enjoy each other, and

enjoy the results that you will achieve together.

26 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships

Strategies for Success 27
Resources
Bureau of Land Management Appropriate Dispute Resolution Program
This program explores alternatives to litigation for resolving contentious
land issues. This is a positive resource for those looking to build upon their
understanding of collaboration regarding land management, as well as for
those working to resolve issues in the workplace or regarding government
contracts. The website provides links to the laws and agency directives that
encourage or require collaborative inclusion of stakeholders within the federal
management structure.
www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/adr.htm
Bureau of Land Management, National Training Center
The BLM National Training Center is recognized nationally as one of the
outstanding training facilities in government. Its mission is to sustain the health
and productivity of the public lands through education and training. The NTC
offers over 200 courses annually, making it a primary source for BLM training
in natural resources and leadership. However, NTC’s service to the federal
community doesn’t end there, as many courses are available to partners and
employees of other agencies through a tuition program, and many agencies of
state and federal government use the facility on a cost-reimbursable basis.
www.blm.gov/ntc/st/en.html
Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy
at the University of Montana
The Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy is an applied
research and education center. It operates on the premise that the most effective
way to shape public policy is through public processes that are well informed and
provide meaningful opportunities for all interested citizens, stakeholders, and
decision-makers to participate. Staff and associates specialize in collaboration,
conflict resolution, and various substantive areas of policy, including water, public
lands, and land use planning. During the past eight years, the Center has focused
much of its effort on large landscape conservation, including facilitation of the
Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent.
www.cnrep.org
www.crownroundtable.org
Green Media Toolshed
Green Media Toolshed provides tools and training to organizations involved
in the environmental movement to improve the effectiveness of their
communication with the public.
www.greenmediatoolshed.org
Heritage Development Institute
The Heritage Development Institute offers workshops and other training
opportunities for the development of professionals involved in heritage areas.
This program, which partners with the National Park Service, assists various
agency personnel as well as citizen stakeholders in the areas of organization,
management, education, building capacity, marketing, and sustainability. The
website has information about workshops, newsletters, and research, as well as
links to similar services from other organizations.
www.heritagedevelopmentinstitute.org
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
The Lincoln Institute examines issues of land management and taxation and
provides information about urban planning, valuation and international issues.
The website contains valuable networking information as well as scientific and
policy analysis. A substantial list of resources includes books, working papers, a
quarterly magazine, and multimedia resources. Much of this material is available
for free downloading, including certain book chapters.
www.lincolninst.edu
Miistakis Institute for the Rockies
Affiliated with the University of Calgary, the Miistakis Institute is a research-
oriented organization developed to assist with advancing knowledge about
the Crown of the Continent, centered on Waterton-Glacier International Peace
Park. Information about its three main focus areas—ecosystem research
and management, geospatial analysis, and the facilitation of information
sharing—is available on the website.
www.rockies.ca
Netcentric Campaigns
A subdivision of Green Media Toolshed, Netcentric Campaigns power progressive
social change by serving as a hub connecting change makers with the innovation,
tools and strategy needed to be successful in the age of connectivity.
www.netcentriccampaigns.org
28 Sustaining Large Landscape Conservation Partnerships
Northeast Landscapes
Planners and advocates are working across political jurisdictions to establish
landscape conservation initiatives that protect watersheds, wildlife habitat, and
other landscape-scale processes. This is especially true in the 13 state Northeast
Megaregion, where complex urban development patterns and high demand for
land and resources poses particular challenges for conservation. Landscape
conservation initiatives can be a key tool for identifying and responding to the
broader threats of regional land use and infrastructure investment decisions. With
support from The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the USDA Forest Service
Northeastern Area, America 2050 / Regional Plan Association are helping
landscape conservation initiatives succeed.
www.rpa.org/northeastlandscapes
Partnership Resource Center
The Partnership Resource Center provides online resources to build vibrant
partnerships and effective collaboration for the nation’s forests, grasslands,
and other special places. The website is a joint project of the National Forest
Foundation and the USDA Forest Service.
www.partnershipresourcecenter.org
Place Matters
Place Matters is a nonprofit group working to promote community-based,
participatory planning that provides tools for planning workshops and citizen
action on its website. Other resources available on the website provide innovative
tools for increased citizen participation and collaborative planning.
www.placematters.org
Practitioners’ Network for Large Landscape Conservation
The Practitioners’ Network for Large Landscape Conservation is an informal
group of individuals interested in furthering the objectives of large landscape
conservation. The Network’s vision is to improve large landscape conservation
science, practice, policy, and performance by creating a place where
practitioners can exchange information, share best practices, examine
emerging policy initiatives, and build a national constituency in support of large
landscape conservation.
www.largelandscapenetwork.org
Red Lodge Clearinghouse
Red Lodge Clearinghouse helps those interested in developing useful strategies
aimed at collaborative decision-making. It researches actual case studies of
western land management and connects visitors to media information. This is
also a good resource for those searching for law summaries and public outreach.
www.rlch.org
River Network
River Network’s mission is to empower and unite people and communities to
protect and restore rivers and other waters that sustain the health of our country.
Founded in 1988, they are leading a national watershed protection movement
that includes nearly 5,000 state, regional and local grassroots organizations,
including more than 600 dues-paying River Network “Partner” organizations. Staff
is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, with field offices in Vermont, Maryland,
North Carolina, Wisconsin, Utah and Idaho.
www.rivernetwork.org
Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition
Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition is comprised of western rural and
local, regional, and national organizations that have joined together to promote
balanced conservation-based approaches to the ecological and economic
problems facing the West. RVCC focuses on policy issues that affect rural
communities, public lands management, and the continuation of a natural
resource-based economy in the West. They are committed to finding and
promoting policy solutions through collaborative, place-based work that
recognizes the inextricable link between the long-term health of the land and
the well-being of rural communities. They come from Alaska, Arizona, California,
Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington.
www.sustainablenorthwest.org/rvcc/rural-voices-for-conservation-coalition
Smart Communities Network
This group provides a useful collection of stories and information about land
use planning, with many links to alternative methods of decision-making,
financing, and rural issues. It also offers tools for green building, energy, and
transportation, as well as ideas for monitoring effective policies and ideas for
community disaster preparedness.
www.smartcommunities.ncat.org
 Thanks to all the groups that have
contributed to the knowledge in this guide:
Animas River Stakeholders Group
www.waterinfo.org/arsg/arupdate.html
Sonoran Institute
The Sonoran Institute inspires and enables community decisions and public Blackfoot Challenge
policies that respect the land and people of western North America. Facing rapid http://blackfootchallenge.org
change, communities in the West value their natural and cultural resources, which California Coastal National Monument
support resilient environmental and economic systems. Founded in 1990, the www.blm.gov/pgdata/content/ca/en/prog/blm_special_areas/nm/ccnm.html
Institute helps communities conserve and restore those resources and manage
growth and change through collaboration, civil dialogue, sound information, Cienega Watershed Partnership
practical solutions and big-picture thinking. For more information, visit www.cienega.org
www.sonoraninstitute.org Colorado Conservation Initiative
Sustainable Northwest www.rmef.org/Conservation/HowWeConserve/Landscapes/Initiatives/
Sustainable Northwest is collaborating with regional partners to address Colorado/ColoradoInitiative.htm
landscape-scale restoration across multiple rural communities in eastern Continental Divide Trail Alliance
Oregon and northern California. This five-year initiative aims to increase the www.cdtrail.org
health of forested landscapes and the vitality of the communities, businesses,
and wood products entrepreneurs within the Dry Forest Investment Zone. The Crown of the Continent Geotourism Council
program focuses on advancing sustainable forestry, economic development, and www.crownofthecontinent.net
community resilience in the dry forests of eastern Oregon and northern California. Crown Managers Partnership
www.sustainablenorthwest.org/programs/dfiz www.crownmanagers.org
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Conservation Training Center Desert Managers Group
NCTC courses are open to any interested students who meet the pre-qualification www.dmg.gov
standards set forth for each class. While college credit is available for many
courses, most students are environmental or technical professionals who are Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition
looking for career enhancement training. NCTC does not offer degree programs. www.envlc.org
http://training.fws.gov Great Northern Landscape Conservation Cooperative
U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/gnlcc
This is a federal program aimed to discover new and innovative alternatives to Mattole Restoration Council
environmental conflicts. The website consists of tools such as training programs, www.mattole.org
briefs of particular case studies, and Native American consultation services. It
also provides an overview of the basic elements of conflict resolution practices. Modoc Plateau Sagebrush Steppe Restoration Initiative
www.ecr.gov www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/WAP/docs/report/ch12-modoc.pdf

Western Governors’ Association North Slope Science Initiative

The Western Governors’ Association is an example of an inter-state collaborative www.northslope.org
organization that focuses on cooperative decision-making across jurisdictional Northern Sierra Partnership
boundaries. It includes a series of working groups that are assigned to various www.northernsierrapartnership.org
issues. Its governance structures are illustrated on the website, which also
Oregon-California Trails Association
contains information about initiatives relating to issues such as climate change,
www.octa-trails.org
water, wildfire, and rangeland health.
www.westgov.org Oregon/Idaho/Nevada Shrub Steppe
www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wo/Communications_
Directorate/public_affairs/healthy_lands_initiative.Par.18421.File.dat/
HLI-OR_ID_NV_FY09.pdf
Owl Mountain Partnership
http://owlmountainpartnership.org
Restore New Mexico
www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/restore_new_mexico.html
Roundtable on the Crown of the Continent
www.crownroundtable.org
Sustainable Northwest
www.sustainablenorthwest.org
Trout Creek Mountain Working Group

References www.mountainvisions.com/Aurora/tcmwghat.html
Upper Salmon Basin Watershed
www.modelwatershed.org

Goldsmith, Stephen and William D. Eggers. 2004. Governing by Network: The Utah Partners for Conservation and Development
New Shape of the Public Sector. The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC. www.utahpcd.info

McKinney, Matthew. Regional Collaboration. Retrieved from “http://www. Wallowa Resources

lincolninst.edu/subcenters/regional-collaboration/tools/getting-started/capacity. www.wallowaresources.org
asp#scientific-and-technical-capacity Western Native Trout Initiative
McKinney, Matthew, Lynn Scarlett, and Daniel Kemmis. 2010. Large Landscape www.westernnativetrout.org
Conservation: A Strategic Framework for Policy and Action. Policy Focus Report, Willamette Water Trail
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, MA. willamette-riverkeeper.org/WTrail/
McKinney, Matthew J. and Shawn Johnson. 2009. Working Across Boundaries: Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative
People, Nature, and Regions. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, MA. www.wlci.gov

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6/2012